showed at its best, and her face was saucy, sparkling, daring.
“Good morning, Russ,” said Miss Sampson and she gazed searchingly at me. I had dropped off the fence, sombrero in hand. I knew I was in for a lecture, and I put on a brazen, innocent air.
“Did you break your promise to me?” she asked reproachfully.
“Which one?” I asked. It was Sally's bright eyes upon me, rather than Miss Sampson's reproach, that bothered me.
“About getting drunk again,” she said.
“I didn't break
“My cousin George saw you in the Hope So gambling place last night, drunk, staggering, mixing with that riffraff, on the verge of a brawl.”
“Miss Sampson, with all due respect to Mr. Wright, I want to say that he has a strange wish to lower me in the eyes of you ladies,” I protested with a fine show of spirit.
“Russ,
“No. I should think you needn't ask me that. Didn't you ever see a man the morning after a carouse?”
Evidently she had. And there I knew I stood, fresh, clean-shaven, clear-eyed as the morning.
Sally's saucy face grew thoughtful, too. The only thing she had ever asked of me was not to drink. The habit had gone hard with the Sampson family.
“Russ, you look just as—as nice as I'd want you to,” Miss Sampson replied. “I don't know what to think. They tell me things. You deny. Whom shall I believe? George swore he saw you.”
“Miss Sampson, did I ever lie to you?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
Then I looked at her, and she understood what I meant.
“George has lied to me. That day at Sanderson. And since, too, I fear. Do you say he lies?”
“Miss Sampson, I would not call your cousin a liar.”
Here Sally edged closer, with the bridle rein of her horse over her arm.
“Russ, cousin George isn't the only one who saw you. Burt Waters told me the same,” said Sally nervously. I believed she hoped I was telling the truth.
“Waters! So he runs me down behind my back. All right, I won't say a word about him. But do you believe I was drunk when I say no?”
“I'm afraid I do, Russ,” she replied in reluctance. Was she testing me?
“See here, Miss Sampson,” I burst out. “Why don't you discharge me? Please let me go. I'm not claiming much for myself, but you don't believe even that. I'm pretty bad. I never denied the scraps, the gambling—all that. But I did do as Miss Sally asked me—I did keep my promise to you. Now, discharge me. Then I'll be free to call on Mr. Burt Waters.”
Miss Sampson looked alarmed and Sally turned pale, to my extreme joy.
Those girls believed I was a desperate devil of a cowboy, who had been held back from spilling blood solely through their kind relation to me.
“Oh, no!” exclaimed Sally. “Diane, don't let him go!”
“Russ, pray don't get angry,” replied Miss Sampson and she put a soft hand on me that thrilled me, while it made me feel like a villain. “I won't discharge you. I need you. Sally needs you. After all, it's none of my business what you do away from here. But I hoped I would be so happy to—to reclaim you from—Didn't you ever have a sister, Russ?”
I kept silent for fear that I would perjure myself anew. Yet the situation was delicious, and suddenly I conceived a wild idea.
“Miss Sampson,” I began haltingly, but with brave front, “I've been wild in the past. But I've been tolerably straight here, trying to please you. Lately I have been going to the bad again. Not drunk, but leaning that way. Lord knows what I'll do soon if—if my trouble isn't cured.”
“Russ! What trouble?”
“You know what's the matter with me,” I went on hurriedly. “Anybody could see that.”
Sally turned a flaming scarlet. Miss Sampson made it easier for me by reason of her quick glance of divination.
“I've fallen in love with Miss Sally. I'm crazy about her. Here I've got to see these fellows flirting with her. And it's killing me. I've—”
“If you are crazy about me, you don't have to tell!” cried Sally, red and white by turns.
“I want to stop your flirting one way or another. I've been in earnest. I wasn't flirting. I begged you to— to...”
“You never did,” interrupted Sally furiously. That hint had been a spark.
“I couldn't have dreamed it,” I protested, in a passion to be earnest, yet tingling with the fun of it. “That day when I—didn't I ask...”
“If my memory serves me correctly, you didn't ask anything,” she replied, with anger and scorn now struggling with mirth.
